USS Mahopac (ATA-196)


USS Mahopac (ATA-196) underway, date and location unknown
Career (USA)
Name: USS Mahopac (ATA-196)
Builder: Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX
Laid down: 24 November 1944
Launched: 21 December 1944
Commissioned: 6 March 1945
Renamed: USS Mahopac (ATA-196), 16 July 1948
Reclassified: Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-196, 15 May 1944
Struck: 15 April 1976
Fate: Sold to Taiwan under the Security Assistance Program (SAP), 1 May 1976, renamed Ta Peng (ATA-549)
General characteristics
Class and type: Sotoyomo-class auxiliary fleet tug
Displacement: 534 t.(lt) 835 t.(fl)
Length: 143 ft (44 m)
Beam: 33 ft (10 m)
Draft: 13 ft (4.0 m)
Propulsion: diesel-electric engines, single screw
Speed: 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement: 45
Armament: one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount

Upon completion of shakedown and underway training, ATA‑196 departed for the Pacific. From May through November 1945 she participated in towing operations in the central and western Pacific. She then proceeded to the north Pacific for towing and search air rescue duties with the Alaskan Sea frontier. While serving in that area, she was named Mahopac 16 July 1948. The ocean going tug remained under the operational control of the commanding officer, U.S. Naval Station. Kodiak Island, Alaska, until May 1957. On 13 May, Mahopac departed Kodiak for Astoria, Oregon, for inactivation. En route she received new orders canceling inactivation and changing her homeport to Yokosuka, Japan, effective 1 July 1957.

Mahopac departed San Francisco for the western Pacific 22 July 1957 with barges in tow. Transferring the barges at Eniwetok atoll 28 August, she continued on to Yokosuka, arriving 7 September. She then performed towing and drone operations for the Fleet Training Group. Through 1964, her duties took her as far as Subic Bay in the Philippines; her 1965 to 1969 assignments have extended her cruises to include periodic tours off the coast of Vietnam in support of 7th Fleet operations there.

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